Safe
by BuffyAnne
Summary: She's stoic. More so than he thinks he's ever seen her. Sure, she's always been quiet. They've joked about her being the wallflower. But this is different. ... Set immediately after 2x09.


**Title:** _Safe_

 **Rating:** PG-13

 **Pairing/Characters:** Frank/Laurel

 **Spoilers:** Set immediately after 2x09.

 **Disclaimer:** All things _HTGAWM_ belong to ABC, Pete Nowalk, and Shonda Rhimes. I'm just borrowing them.

 **Summary** : _She's stoic. More so than he thinks he's ever seen her. Sure, she's always been quiet. They've joked about her being the wallflower. But this is different._

 **A/N:** This is my first fic in this fandom, and hoping to write more. This was written quickly and though I've edited, it's possible I may have missed something. Reviews/constructive criticism are always welcomed.

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She's stoic. More so than he thinks he's ever seen her. Sure, she's always been quiet. They've joked about her being the wallflower. But this is different. Usually, he can see her mind working, thinking one step ahead of the rest of them. That's not the case right now. Her eyes are blank; just staring out with a vacant gaze.

He doesn't really know what happened; he'd been off on his own assignment, trusting in Annalise to take care of the rest of it. Laurel called him after it happened; her voice as steady as he thinks he's ever heard it. She told him Annalise had been shot, that she had this plan to make the set up look as real as possible but it backfired. He knew what that meant he had to do. So, he told Laurel to get to his place and stay there. He would be there as soon as he could.

After rushing to the hospital, somehow arriving just in time to see Annalise being pulled out of the ambulance, he followed her in. It's exactly what he needed.

"Don't let her die," he shouted, putting on one of his best performances. He got the blood he came for, as well as an alibi he's sure he'll need. He went through the rest of his task as efficiently as ever. This is what he does. He can push it aside, compartmentalize everything in his life; he's devoid of emotions when he's doing things like this, able to separate himself from the truly vile things he has to do for Annalise. He sometimes wonders if he'll ever be able to escape it.

He switches it off though as he enters his apartment. Returning to Frank. He's expecting to see Laurel, knowing she'll be able to tell him everything now, and he can figure out what he has to do to protect them. To protect her. It definitely didn't look good at the hospital.

"Laurel?" he calls out, moving further into his apartment. Laurel is nowhere to be seen but her sweater is on the back of his couch, so he knows she's there.

"Laurel?" he repeats before walking into the bedroom. She's on the floor, knees hugged to her chest, back against the side of his bed. He's immediately overcome with the need to gather her in his arms, tell her that she'll be okay, no matter what happened. He doesn't think that's the best move though; she doesn't even seem to recognize that he's arrived.

"Laurel." His voice is softer this time as he kneels in front of her. Her gaze flickers up at him, a sense of recognition for just a moment, but then she's staring off again. This is not the Laurel that he's used to seeing. He should have known that it was only a matter of time before all of this caught up with her, before she broke down.

It's a few minutes of silence before she starts speaking. When she does, her voice is so soft he almost has to strain to hear her.

"She tried to make us shoot her."

She's not looking at him, still staring off. It's almost as if she's talking to herself.

"Tried to goad us. First Connor, then Michela. They wouldn't do it but they… She said I could do it. I always help... that I- I could do this because I had been through worse with my father."

Her voice finally breaks at that. And Frank can feel his blood start to boil. Everything he's pushed down, every negative feeling towards Annalise, makes its way to the surface. Laurel's in this state right now because of her. Using everything with her father against her, to get her to do this… It's not right, and he almost wishes he could have shot Annalise himself.

"You told her?" Laurel's soft voice pulls him out of his anger. She's looking at him now, finally. There are tears in her eyes.

"No," he promises, his voice soft. It's the truth.

"Then- then how did she know?" Her voice is heartbreaking and he just wants to wrap her in his arms and tell her that's it all going to be okay. He doesn't know if that's what she needs though.

"I didn't tell her anything. She had what was in the initial background I did on all of you," he explained. It wasn't the first time he mentioned the background checks to Laurel; she knows the basics of her father and childhood are in there. "But that was it. I didn't tell her anything we talked about," he assures her, reaching out to rest his palm against her cheek. "I would never do that."

To say he had been surprised when Laurel brought up her childhood a couple weeks earlier, shortly after she met his family, would be an understatement. He had fallen even more in love with her, as she opened up to him one night in bed, telling him things about her father and her past that she had never told anyone else. It made him think there might actually be a chance for them.

He feels her lean into his touch, eyes shutting to stem the fall of tears gathering in her eyes. He takes that as an opening, moving next to her and gently pulling her towards him. She falls easily into his embrace as she starts to cry softly.

"She used it. She used it against me. And I-," her voice catches there, and he knows what she's going to say. His jaw tightens as he tries to keep in that anger he feels towards Annalise. Laurel doesn't deserve any of this.

"I was going to do it," she confirms, and he shuts his eyes. He doesn't want this. Bonnie's words from earlier in the night come back to him. He doesn't want Laurel to end up like them. She has a chance to get out of this. And for Frank, she's _his_ chance. As long as he has her, part of him has started to think that he can get out of this too.

"But I couldn't." She almost sounds ashamed to say it, like she thinks she's letting him down. He pulls her closer.

"Hey, it's okay," he says, finally speaking, giving her assurances. "It's good you didn't."

"But if I had done it, Wes wouldn't have… She said Rebecca was dead."

He stiffens slightly at that. He had kept it from her; it was one of those things he had compartmentalized.

"And he- he didn't shoot her in the leg like he was supposed to… Oh, god. What happens if she dies?" she asks, pulling back so that she could look at him. "We all touched that gun," she admits, and though she's freaking out about that, he relaxes slightly. Because if she's thinking about what will happen next, she's coming back to herself.

His own mind is racing too. What can he do to make sure this doesn't get back to Laurel? To any of them.

"I'll take care of it," he promises.

She nods slightly, taking a breath.

"What happens next?" she asks him. He wishes he knew.

"We get some rest," he says, finally. "We've got a long road ahead of us, and we're not gonna be thinking clearly if we don't sleep. This whole thing is a mess, Laurel," he admits. "We're gonna need to be on top of our game."

She agrees silently, and he helps her stand, undressing her before finding an old shirt she can sleep in. He strips down to his boxers and climbs into bed with her. Pulling her into his arms, he keeps her close, her head on his chest with his fingers slowly combing through her hair.

"I can't stop thinking about it," she whispers.

"Annalise will be okay," he tells her, willing it so.

"No," she corrects, "what happened with my father. I thought, maybe it was getting better. _I_ was getting better. But when she said… it all just came back. And I keep replaying things in my mind over and over. I can't make it stop."

The stoic manner he found her in makes much more sense now. And for the umpteenth time that night, he feels an anger towards Annalise. He wants to hurt her for doing this to Laurel. She's his sunlight. When she's around, he doesn't feel like he's fallen so far. And Annalise is trying to take that from him.

"He's never going to hurt you again, Laurel," he tells her, conviction clear in his voice.

She just nods against his chest and hugs him tighter. "Promise?" she asks, softly.

"I promise," he tells her before silence overtakes them once more. It doesn't actually take her much longer to fall asleep, and though he knows he should sleep as well, he can't. Instead, his mind is replaying everything he knows about that night, trying to figure out exactly where they might have gone wrong and how he can fix it. But soon those thoughts turn only to the girl in his arms.

He thinks about how much he loves her. He hasn't said it to her yet but he does. But it's something he's never really felt for anyone else, and that both excited and terrifies him. He'll do whatever he has to to keep her safe.

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 _Thanks for reading!_


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